Overview of Fund
     The West Philadelphia Community Fund is a one-time fund that will make $500,000 in grants to movement organizations in the West Philadelphia community. The West Philadelphia Community Fund will make one-time grants to community-based groups in two tracks: 

1. Community Organizing - Community organizing to create systems change that builds resilience and improves the quality of life in the West Philadelphia community.
2. Mental Health and Wellness - Providing culturally responsive, community-based mental health and wellness services in the West Philadelphia community to individuals impacted by the police violence that occurred on May 31, 2020. 

The West Philadelphia Community Fund will award grants of $15,000 to groups doing community organizing and grants of $20,000 to groups providing mental health and wellness services. Applicants can apply to only ONE track.

Track 1 – Community Organizing:  Community organizing to create systems change that builds resilience and improves the quality of life in the West Philadelphia community by having a long-term vision for social justice and engaging in strategies that promote sustainable systems change, including: 

• A focus on community organizing and activism that aims to shift the balance of power between community members and policy makers to make changes in policies or practices with broad applications at the institutional or systems level.
• A clear understanding of the root causes of the social justice problem or issue that they are working to resolve.
• A vision that emphasizes changing the systems that create or perpetuate the social justice problem or issue being addressed. 
• A strategy that includes: 1) building a local base for taking collective action by the community affected by the social justice problem or issue; and 2) results in concrete outcomes in policies or practices in the West Philadelphia community. 
• Leadership that is primarily composed of people most affected by the social justice problem or issue that is being addressed. 
• Work that is not eligible for this track includes direct service work/social services, self-help/empowerment programs, educational programs, litigation, or advocacy.  

Track 2 – Mental Health and Wellness: Providing culturally responsive, community-based mental health and wellness services to individuals regardless of insurance status, who are impacted by the police violence that occurred on May 31, 2020. 

• Mental wellness is defined by the Global Wellness Institute as “an internal resource that helps us think, feel, connect and function; it is an active process that helps us to build resilience, grow and flourish. Mental wellness has several dimensions: thinking, feeling, connecting and functioning.” 
• Mental health and wellness services may include programs that are wholistic, communal, cultural and spiritual (e.g., healing circles; meditation, mindfulness, and mind-body practices; play, making and creating). This may also include professional wellness services (e.g., licensed individual/group therapy)
   

Application Deadline 

The deadline to apply for the West Philadelphia Community Fund is 11:59 p.m. on October 6, 2023. To be considered for funding, proposals must be complete and submitted on time. Because of the volume of applications we receive, we cannot consider incomplete or late applications.   

Eligibility Criteria for West Philadelphia Community Fund 

For the purposes of this fund, West Philadelphia is defined as neighborhoods that are west of the Schuylkill River and located within the following zip codes: 19131, 19151, 19139, 19104, 19143. 

• Must be located in Philadelphia and organizing within West Philadelphia (Track 1) or providing mental health and wellness services to residents of West Philadelphia (Track 2). 
• Must be designated by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization or have a fiscal sponsor that is designated by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization.  
• Must be current with all progress reports from previously awarded Bread & Roses grants. 
• Must submit a complete application prior to the deadline. Due to the prospective volume of applications we receive, we cannot make exceptions. 
• Must apply for a grant in only one of the two tracks: Community Organizing or Mental Health and Wellness. 
• Priority will be given to organizations whose leadership is primarily composed of people most affected by the social justice problem or issue that is being addressed, particularly for work that supports Black people, poor people, long-term West Philadelphia residents, and young people.

 
Application Process Suggestions 

• We suggest you review the entire application before filling it out. If you find a hard copy helpful, you can print one using the print function in your web browser. 
• You can save your application and return to edit it as long as you do not submit your application. Once you hit submit, you will not be able to make any changes. 
• Please fill the charts in as completely as you can. If you don't have the information we're requesting, enter "0" in that box for your application to be considered complete. 

What Happens After You Hit Submit 

1. Bread & Roses staff will screen all the proposals to make sure that they meet our eligibility requirements. 
2. Community Grantmaking Committee members will review proposals individually and use a democratic decision-making process to select groups that will be recommended for funding. 
3. Recommendations for grants made by the Community Grantmaking Committee will be presented to the Bread & Roses Board of Directors for final approval. 
4. Grant award announcements will be made in January 2024.